Suggestion Scubaboard Enhancement eXtension for Google Chrome

[kgilb]

I'm not exactly sure where to post this, I'm now cross-posting it in the introduction and greets forum.

For a few weeks now I have been creating a Chrome extension similar to the popular Reddit Enhancement Suite. I have been using/testing it myself for a while and I am now ready to share it with Scubaboard users.

What does it do?
The extension adds some enhancements to browsing/using Scubaboard. The following features are included in this release:

Auto-Page:
Similar to Reddits Never Ending Scroll. It will automatically load the next/previous page in the forums topic lists, search results and within an individual thread.
Original Poster:
Simply highlights the original poster of a thread. This will work whether you start on the first page, or jump to the middle of an existing thread. The color is currently set to a lime green but a future release will allow you to set your own color to highlight the OP.

User Tagging:
Allows you to set your own custom Tags/Colors for users. You can use it to remind you of anything about a scuba board user. I've been using it to tag local divers and some of the Instructors at my local shop so I remember who they are. My name is tagged by default as the SBX author but you can change/delete it.

Link Preview:
Shows a small preview of any link embedded in a post.


Enable/Disable features
You can toggle any of these features on/off using the SBX settings icon


Cool! How do I get it?
It currently is only available for Google Chrome. You can install it directly from the Chrome Store.

This thing isn't working!
Send me a private message here or reply to this thread. There's probably a bug. In fact I'll pay for your next air fill if there isn't a bug in here somewhere.

Will this work on other browsers/devices?
This extension currently only works on Chrome on the desktop. If and when extensions can be used on mobile/tablet devices I will port it over and make it work. I will eventually port this over to Firefox if there is enough demand.

I want to help!
Excellent! I plan to open source it shortly on GitHub. Stay tuned.

Can it do this.......
I have 2 features still in development that weren't ready to be released yet (soft-ignore and backup/restore). If you have a good idea for something else to add, send me a message, post below or contribute via GitHub when published.

Mods feel free to move or delete this if this isn't the appropriate forum.....

 

[Fogest]

Are you using code from RES? You have comments like this in there: " // Make sure to call RESStorage.loadItem(key) or RESStorage.loadItem(...keys)"

One of the things this is lacking, just like what I find lacking in RES is the ability to keep these things synced on multiple browsers. I use Chrome on 3 different computers daily and sometimes visit scubaboard on them. If I tag someone I want to be able to see that tag on each browser, otherwise the tags are useless as I will only see them sometimes if I'm on the right browser.

This is why I just don't even use the RES tagging feature.

I like this extension and will put it to use, but like RES I won't be using the tagging feature as it is too much work to use the tagging system to only see it for 1/3rd of my browsing experience.

 

[kgilb]

Are you using code from RES? You have comments like this in there: " // Make sure to call RESStorage.loadItem(key) or RESStorage.loadItem(...keys)"

One of the things this is lacking, just like what I find lacking in RES is the ability to keep these things synced on multiple browsers. I use Chrome on 3 different computers daily and sometimes visit scubaboard on them. If I tag someone I want to be able to see that tag on each browser, otherwise the tags are useless as I will only see them sometimes if I'm on the right browser.

This is why I just don't even use the RES tagging feature.

I like this extension and will put it to use, but like RES I won't be using the tagging feature as it is too much work to use the tagging system to only see it for 1/3rd of my browsing experience.

I gutted the localStorage code from RES and simplified it down to what I needed. I probably left a comment in there from RES. I'm with you on tagging across multiple browsers, I would LOVE to be able to do it. If I can come up with a free storage service to host each users tags then I could use that to sync across browsers. Of course this would introduce a security issue in that how would I protect each users individual tags from being shown to the wrong person......

 

[kgilb]

It looks like Chrome now supports storage sync across browsers. I'll play around with this and see if I can update a future version to use it for all the SBX settings and tags.

chrome.storage - Google Chrome

 

[Fogest]

It looks like Chrome now supports storage sync across browsers. I'll play around with this and see if I can update a future version to use it for all the SBX settings and tags.

chrome.storage - Google Chrome

Chrome has supported sync for a long time. The problem however may be your size limits it gives you. It is a lot less than the local option from chromes storage. The sync is quite a bit less. The main reason I think RES uses the HTML5 localstorage is because their code is multibrowser. If you use the chrome storage api you must switch this code for other browsers.

I could provide a location to store and retrieve users tags for free if you needed one. I already support the HideFedora project for the web backend of the browser addon. Currently we have close to 40 000 users, but it used to be over double that. So I have the capability to support this project as well, and have done this kind of thing with extensions before so it is not any new territory.

Let me know if you're interested in working with me to integrate such functionality.

I have the whole web backend I made for the hide fedora project open sourced: GitHub - Fogest/hidefedora-web: The website for reviews and submissions of fedoras for hidefedora project

(We have a review process there, a little more complicated backend wise than this project would need though).

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I disabled the anchor tab but even after closing and reopening my browser I still get a new tab opened each time I click on a thread.

 

[kgilb]

I disabled the anchor tab but even after closing and reopening my browser I still get a new tab opened each time I click on a thread.

Hm I can't seem to reproduce it. After you disable it if you refresh your browser (F5) it should no longer open links in a new tab

 

[admikar]

Anchor tabs is working OK, but Auto page is not, it still loads. Ha, I got myself an air fill!!!

 

[kgilb]

Anchor tabs is working OK, but Auto page is not, it still loads. Ha, I got myself an air fill!!!

Are you saying turning off auto page keeps loading more pages?

In fact I'll pay for your next air fill if there isn't a bug in here somewhere

I said I would pay for air fills if there WERE NOT bugs

 

[kgilb]

Anchor tabs is working OK, but Auto page is not, it still loads. Ha, I got myself an air fill!!!

Ok I found the bug I'll get a new version up sometime today.